His Voice
by RedBlackbird
Summary: Lovino Vargas is lonely, that much is true. So his brother's friend, Kiku, gives him the beta version of an AI he's designed to act as a companion for the user. Maybe this'll work out better than any human companionship he's had. Loosely based off the movie 'Her'. Eventual Spamano, a few other pairings on the side.
1. Auxiliary

"Fratello, are you listening?"

Feliciano's voice cut through Lovino's reverie and brought him back to earth, where he was sitting across from his twin brother on the patio of the café where Feliciano worked. Even on his days off, Feliciano loved coming here, so of course he dragged his brother here for lunch.

"Not at all," Lovino replied, eyes still on the city's skyline. The dark gray clouds were threatening rain. "What were you saying?"

Feliciano sighed, very obviously feigning exasperation. Then he smiled wide. "I said, Ludwig and I are thinking of adopting. Isn't that so exciting?"

Lovino scowled. He envied his brother so much that it hurt sometimes. Feliciano loved telling Lovino how _wonderful_ his domestic life was going, and now apparently it was so great that he was going to adopt a child. Damn him and his _perfect_ house with a _perfect_ relationship and _perfect_ life.

Lovino wanted that too, although he would never admit it.

He looked at Feliciano again. "With that potato bastard? Are you sure he should even be around kids?"

"Lovino," Feliciano started patiently, "He's not a bastard; I wish you would stop calling him that. Anyway, I wanted to ask if you'd like to go out and meet people!" Feliciano reverted back to his cheerful self. "There's this great place where. . ."

Lovino tuned Feliciano out again, watching the traffic slowly make its way down and up the street. He did not want another lecture about how his brother-in-law was 'a wonderful person' and how he, Lovino, should try to 'get to know him.' And he certainly did not want to hear about how he should 'go out and meet people,' which was Feliciano's code for 'date.'

Lovino Vargas did not 'go out and meet people.' He guarded himself heavily against others, and was not one to trust people easily. He could not really explain why he was so mentally and emotionally secluded. Lovino guessed it was just how he was, although he wasn't really sure.

This, his nature, caused him to shut others out. It was possibly the thing he hated most about himself, but did not have the courage to change.

"We'll see," Lovino said, realizing that Feliciano was waiting for a reply on whatever he'd just said. He smiled and began to prattle on about something else Lovino was indifferent about.

-

Five stories above the ground, Lovino typed quickly and rather loudly, although his dull clicks were lost in the background hum of the hundred or so other people who shared the space. HTML code, he had found, was much more interesting than many people could be. He liked creating websites and pages not only because it paid the bills, but also because it made him proud to create something and be at least a bit useful. And pride was something he could afford to have.

"Lovino, would you mind being a beta tester?" Someone asked from the doorway of Lovino's spacious cubicle, pulling him away from the comfortable HTML code.

He turned to the doorway with his normal scowl, and saw it was a coworker and a friend of Feliciano's, a young man named Kiku Honda. Kiku worked in Applications Repair and Programming, a whole floor above Lovino's office in Website Coding and Design. So why was he here?

"A beta tester?" Lovino asked, his tone a bit irritated, as per usual. "What the hell for?"

Kiku walked forward, handing Lovino a rectangular blue box, a bit bigger than a smartphone. Lovino took it tentatively.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's a new operating system and artificial intelligence a few people on my floor and I decided to create." Kiku explained. "It's to act as a companion, and to learn from the environment around them and the people interacting with them." Kiku gave a sympathetic smile. "And after hearing about how much Feliciano wants you to have someone to talk to other than himself, I thought you were perfect as a beta. What do you think?"

This'll keep Feli off my case, was Lovino's initial thought. And an AI was only really a talking computer, and computers were something Lovino could stand to be around.

"Sure, I'll do it," Lovino agreed as he examined the box. It felt comfortably heavy in his palm, and the top went down four sides of the box, so you had to pull it up and slide the bottom part out.

"Great," Kiku said with a smile. "I'll check in every few weeks to ask how the AI is and what you think of it. You can ask me any questions you have about it later, but I've got to go now." After Kiku had waved good-bye and left the cubicle, Lovino took the opportunity the slide the box out of its cover.

Inside was what looked to be a normal smartphone, with a headphone jack, front and back cameras, and speakers, and even a stand on the back. It was a gentle, calming blue, just as the box it came in. Upon picking it up, Lovino realized it was very lightweight, and underneath it were a pair of coiled up earbuds, with a small microphone on one of them.

Lovino decided to wait until he arrived home to start it up, but several times he found his eyes looking again at the calming blue of the box.

-

It was raining by the time Lovino had managed to get into his apartment, and he'd thankfully gotten inside the building before it could do anything more but drizzle.

"I'm home," he whispered to no one.

Lovino's apartment was small, with the kitchen door only a few feet from the door on the left, and the dining table a foot or two from that. On the right of the door was Lovino's sunny couch he napped on, with a tv in front of it against the wall. The door to the bedroom and bathroom were behind the dining table, and adjacent to that was the small patio, overlooking a busy street. Sometimes he liked the coziness of the cream colored walls and other times he detested the cramped feeling.

He set his bag on the small kitchen's counter, carefully pulling out the small blue box that contained his beta AI. He reopened the box and picked up the operating system. After examining it again, he took a breath and pressed the home button.

"Hello, and welcome to the beta version of Auxiliary Vocals." A smooth, female voice greeted him. The screen light up a sky-blue shade. She sounded somewhat metallic. "You must answer a few questions before the AI can be generated to fit you. First, do you tend to gravitate towards people or do you gravitate away from people?"

"I. . .gravitate away, I guess." Lovino was a bit apprehensive and curious in equal measure.

"Second, do you have strong bonds with your family members, or are they weak?"

Lovino thought briefly of Feliciano and his envy and touch of affection for him. "They're. . .not nearly as strong as they should be."

"Third, and last: would you like a male or female voice to be your operating system?"

"Male."

"Thank you for your answers. Your OS will be generated in a moment."

Nervously, Lovino waited as a small circle spun in the center of the screen. Then it stopped, and a very human-sounding male voice spoke.

"Hello?"

"H-hello," Lovino replied, unsure what to say. "I'm Lovino, Lovino Vargas."

When the voice spoke next, Lovino could almost hear a smile. "Hello, Lovino. My name is Antonio."

_**AN:**__Hey guys! I'm back again with a new fic!I know it's been a while but I'm still super excited to start writing again!_

_Okay, have a nice day lovely doves!_


	2. Hello

"'Antonio'? Are you pre-made system?" Lovino asked, still a bit awestruck about how human Antonio's voice sounded.

"No, I picked out the name myself." Again, there was a strange quality to his voice that just sounded like smiling. "I'm not pre-made, I was designed specially for you a few moments ago."

"When did you pick out a name?"

"Well, you have a great name, and I wanted one too. So after you introduced yourself, I read a baby name book and picked out Antonio." There was just a hint of pride in his tone. "But you can call me Tony."

"Just. . .just now? After I asked you?"

"Yes. I'm quite a fast reader." Antonio chuckled, and Lovino, for a moment, thought it was the most endearing thing in the world.

There was a gentle whirring noise coming from the phone-like object, and Lovino guessed it was Antonio's cameras.

"Is that you?" Antonio asked, and Lovino could almost see the camera fixating on his face.

"Yeah, it's me," Lovino answered a bit awkwardly.

"You look amazing!" Antonio said happily. "You're the first real person I've seen, you know. I have pictures of my creators on file, of course, but I've never really seen them."

"You think. . .I look amazing?" Lovino was a bit taken aback. Amazing?

"Yes, I do," Antonio answered. The quiet whirring of the camera sounded again. "Is this your house?" He asked. "It's very cozy."

"If you mean my apartment is cramped, then yeah," Lovino said, panning the camera around so Antonio could see what passed for a dining room and living room through the kitchen's pass-through window.

"Well, it's kind of small, but I like it." Antonio said confidently. "Is that a street, out there? Can I see?" Lovino thought Antonio sounded more enthusiastic than he should be about a street, but reminded himself that Antonio was only around five minutes old. And he had said Lovino looked _amazing._

Lovino walked around and out to the small balcony that only had enough room for him to stand. Thankfully, there was a covering over it to shield him from the downpour. Even though the sky was now more black than blue, the shapes of the buildings and motions of the cars below were still noticeable. Carefully, he showed Antonio's camera the traffic-filled streets below, as well as the surrounding apartment and business buildings. In the distance, you could just barely see the ocean between two banking firms.

"It's not a very glamorous part of downtown," Lovino said, "but when it gets darker it lights up beautifully."

"It's a great view," Antonio said. "Is that the ocean, over there? Can we go?"

Lovino shook his head. "No, it's raining." He shivered. "And it's freezing." Lovino carried Antonio inside and shut the glass door of the patio behind him.

"Oh," Antonio sounded just a touch disappointed. "And you have work tomorrow, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but we can still talk." Lovino gathered his things that were still sitting on his kitchen counter and took them into his room.

After flicking on the lights, he tossed his bag onto his nightstand and sat down on his bed. He held Antonio up so they could see each other. Lovino yawned, and realized how incredibly tired he was.

"Why was I given to you?" Antonio asked, throwing Lovino a bit off guard.

"Kiku told me it was because my brother's always bothering me about. . .just talking to people." Lovino answered. He shrugged. "Why?"

"I'm curious, I guess. The others have already activated their Vocals, and spoken to them about why they believe they were chosen specifically to test us."

"Who else has an AI?" Lovino was very intrigued. He had no idea that other people were beta-ing along with him.

"Only three others. A young woman named Katyusha, and two young men named Francis and Gilbert." Antonio explained.

"Gilbert? As in Gilbert Beilshmidt?" As in, his brother-in-law? As in the only real crush he'd ever had?

"Yes, his AI, Matthew, believes so. Why?"

"He's. . .my brother-in-law." Lovino chose the safest answer. Besides, he still wasn't sure if he'd really ever liked Gilbert like that; it was so long ago. It had been confusing as a 17-year-old and as a 27-year-old it still didn't make any sense. But that's life.

"Really?" Antonio asked. He actually sounded a bit interested.

"Yeah, his brother is married to my brother." Lovino scowled. "I'm not on really good terms with either of them."

"Why not?" Antonio sounded confused. "But they're family. Aren't you supposed to get along with them?"

Lovino snickered. "I keep forgetting you're only a few minutes old. That's not exactly how it works. You're supposed to, yeah, but some people don't."

"Why?"

"It's complicated, Tony."

Antonio made a sound that resembled an exasperated sigh.

Lovino lay down on the bed on his side, setting Antonio on the pillow next to him. "What else are they saying? The Vocals?"

"Well, Matthew says Gilbert is excitable and loud, but he seems melancholic at the same time. And Lili thinks Katyusha is conflicted over her family, whom she loves, and Arthur says Francis feels lost in life." Antonio went through all this sounding confused, as if it were an oddity that these people could feel several things at once. "Humans are confusing."

"Yeah, we are," Lovino said before closing his eyes. He was asleep within three minutes.

* * *

**AN: And the plot thickens...slightly. Anyways, I'll try to type up the next chapter as quickly as I can! Have a nice day/night!**


End file.
